All this in the name of paying down the deficit. Yet the financial crash and the hole it blew in our public finances were caused by super-rich City boys and the politicians who let them spin out of control. It had nothing to do with people on incapacity benefit, the vast majority of whom want to work but are forced to live in poverty because of their medical conditions.

So why should sick and disabled people be made to pay for the bankers' crisis when clearly the culprits can afford to?

The coalition is cutting our welfare system by £4.5 billion a year. This compares to the £14 billion that bankers paid themselves in bonuses last year, the £20 billion that would be raised by a tiny Robin Hood Tax on the City each year, and the £70 billion a year that could be reclaimed by stopping companies like Barclays and HSBC from dodging their taxes.

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Messing up in spades is how we've previously described Atos Healthcare, the private firm with a £100million Government contract to assess who deserves sickness benefits and who's faking it.

Last month it was revealed that 150,000 people who were refused full benefits by Atos had that decision overturned on appeal.

If that makes Atos sound heartless, it's nothing compared to what one of its assessors has been posting on her Facebook page in Middlesbrough.

Among Debbie Carr's comments about the sick and disabled, there's: "Oh god another day here with the down and outs arggggg!" And: "Well that's the end of my holidays! Back to work tomorrow with the down and outs I suppose..."

About the blog

Andrew Penman and Nick Sommerlad form the Daily Mirror's Investigations team. They write a weekly column in the Mirror every Thursday and they're here to help uncover the scams, and expose the people behind them. They won the Cudlipp Award for campaigning popular journalism at the 2010 British Press Awards.